Effect of a Yoga Based Meditation Technique on Emotional Regulation, Self-compassion and Mindfulness in College Students

Background: Emotion regulation is often a challenge for the college students. Yoga practice has been shown to reduce stress and improve mindfulness that is related to emotion regulation. Mastering emotions technique (MEMT) is one of the yoga-based meditation techniques that are designed to control emotions among practitioners. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no known study reporting its scientific evidence-based effects on emotion and its related variables. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of MEMT on emotion regulation, self-compassion, and mindfulness in college students.

Materials And Methods: Seventy-two subjects with the age varied from 18 to 25 years were recruited from a residential college. All the subjects underwent MEMT for the duration of 45 min a day for a period of 2 weeks. Assessments such as Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) were taken before and after the intervention.

Results: Results of this study showed a significant increase in the scores of cognitive reappraisal, positive affect, self-compassion, and MAAS along with a significant reduction in the scores of negative affect, and expressive suppression after the practice of MEMT compared to its respective baseline.

Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that practice of MEMT is effective in improving emotion regulation, positive affects, self-compassion, and mindfulness while in reducing negative affects among college students.